THE ASSETS OF THE FRUIT GARDEN 
L. R. HARTILL 
Head of Department of Horticulture, N. Y. State Institute of Applied Agriculture, 
Farmingdale, L. I. 
Since the Finest Fruits Are Positively Unavailable Anywhere Outside the Home Fruit Gar- 
den, Why Do We Neglect the Culture of This Easily Created and Easily Maintained Feature? 
BRUITS of the best quality cannot be bought. The finer 
IToA varieties of fruit are not grown commercially except to 
so limited an extent that they are seldom to be had in 
S the market. The commercial fruit grower naturally 
grows fruit to sell (not to eat) and so considerations of profit 
determine his selection of varieties. And varieties that are 
most profitable are, curiously enough, in most cases those of in- 
ferior quality. Hence it is that Baldwin, Ben Davis, Gano, 
Winesap, Rome and apples of this character, all lacking in high 
quality, are often the only kinds offered for sale. The same 
holds true with regard to other fruits, so much so indeed that 
few of us know how delicious a strawberry or peach, for instance, 
can be merely because we have had to take what the market 
offered and so have never become acquainted with the best, 
with the aristocrats of fruitdom. 
The home fruit garden is of little interest and usually of no 
profit unless the fruits grown therein are exceptional either in 
their quality or their rarity. For the ordinary kinds and 
varieties of fruit, produced commercially, may be purchased for 
less than the cost of producing them in the home garden would 
be; therefore quality and rarity should be the all-important 
considerations in the selection of varieties for home culture. 
It needs but a casual survey of the situation however to con- 
vince that these considerations have not prevailed, excepting in 
a few cases. The result is that our home fruit gardens are in a 
majority of cases producing varieties of fruit not only inferior in 
themselves but actually not as well grown nor as desirable as the 
commercially grown fruit of the same varieties that can be had 
on the market. 
The obvious conclusion is that many of our home fruit 
gardens need replanting; and we further see that there should 
be many more of them, selection of the varieties being based on 
an understanding of the true purpose of the private fruit gar- 
den — namely, the production of fruit of only the highest quality, 
fruit that is superlative in its excellence. Until this rigid stand- 
ard is set up, and followed, the full possibilities of the fruit 
garden as a source of pleasure can never be realized; for with 
the growing of fruit as with other lines of agricultural or horti- 
cultural work undertaken non-commercially, the reward is 
found in the satisfaction of producing something superior and 
in the pride of accomplishment. 
This is better appreciated abroad than here, hence the ex- 
traordinary lengths to which the estate owner in Europe will go 
whether with fruits or flowers, in order to achieve rarity or 
excellence. His pride in his successes is truly creative — a 
pride that can be likened only to that of the artist in his 
masterpiece. 
I N THE adaptation of our soil and climate to the growing of 
fruit nature has been extremely generous with us, much more 
so than with most parts of Europe. This is evidenced not only 
by our relatively greater commercial production and the sup- 
eriority of our commercially grown fruits, but also by the greater 
number of indigenous species. It is not necessary here to 
resort to the expedients that characterize, for instance, the 
growing of high quality fruits in England; but if we were to give 
to the fruit garden a good measure of the thought and care that 
it is necessary to give it in England in order to attain even 
fair results, we would produce fruit of a quality heretofore un- 
dreamed of. 
Furthermore, the possibilities of useful fruits as em- 
bellishment to estate or suburban home is almost limitless. 
Few plants grown purely as ornamentals can compete with our 
fruit trees when they are well grown, in the succession of beauty 
and interest from blossom to fruition; and almost no other 
planting is so susceptible to arrangement indicative of per- 
manence and the feeling of home, or connotative of a particular 
mood as is the fruit garden. 
A LL of which brings us to the question of just when fruit 
. trees may be planted most successfully. Probably any plant 
may be transplanted at any time, and transplanted successfully, 
providing the proper care is exercised in performing the opera- 
tion. However, unless there is some special need, it is just as 
well to wait until the tree matures its terminal buds, after which 
it may be said to be dormant. For the dormant condition of a 
tree is arrived at considerably in advance of the dropping of its 
foliage. Recognizing this, it will be seen that considerable 
time may perfectly well be gained over the usual practice 
of waiting until the tree has shed its leaves before trans- 
planting it. 
Early fall planting generally is recognized as superior to 
spring planting, excepting for some of the more tender thin- 
barked stone fruits that are especially subject to winter killing. 
The great advantage of fall planting is that, during the fall, 
trees naturally develop new roots; consequently the setback 
a tree receives at that time as a result of transplanting is much 
less severe. And the earlier in the fall a tree is planted the 
more time it has in which to develop new roots before the 
severe cold of winter. Moreover the ground being warm 
stimulates greater root development. 
P LANTING may therefore be begun at once — and may con- 
tinue through the rest of the season until freezing of the 
ground — beginning with the small fruits such as Strawberries, 
Raspberries, Blackberries, then Currants and Gooseberries. 
After the last of August, transplant or set out Apples and Pears, 
and some of the hardier varieties of stone fruits. The less 
hardy stone fruits and Grapes wait until spring. 
But let it be very clearly understood that nothing 
which has been said here is meant to convey the impression 
that there is actually any set time when fruits should be planted; 
rather the opposite view is taken. It is desired to emphasize 
that the fruit grower is not as narrowly limited in the time of 
planting as has been generally supposed; and that fruit trees 
may be planted successfully much earlier in the fall than is now 
the practice. 
As a bit of warning, however, to conclude 1 may say that 
recently there has been a great boom in commercial fruit grow- 
ing throughout the United States, with a corresponding demand 
on nurseries supplying stock. This coupled with the labor 
conditions so familiar to all industries has greatly depleted the 
supply of first-class, well-grown stock. Further, shortage of 
nursery trees is not a condition that can be remedied in a single 
season simply by more extensive planting on the part of the nur- 
seryman, for it takes some years to produce a tree especially 
of the type desired for the fruit garden. It might be w r ell 
therefore to plant now, if planting is contemplated, and as 
early in the season as possible. This should secure the pick of 
the stock on hand, rather than the culls — and insure against 
the disappointment of being unable to obtain the selected var- 
ieties desired for the home garden. 
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